Languages

blinc · Post by **blinc** » August 23rd, 2005, 12:01 am

I am posting the thread in this area because the language portion of SF training is the closest thing I could think of, besides the general 'catch-all' forum. So if it needs to be moved, please do so.

My question is this. I'm scheduled myself to take an introductory Arabic course at my college this coming semester, and was wondering if anyone (Ranger/SF/etc.) who has experience with Eastern languages, can point me in the direction of some supplemental study guides, materials, and things like that. If there is a brand of audio cds/tapes, books, videos, pretty much anything that helped you out in your training, I'd love to hear about it.

hit_it · Post by **hit_it** » August 23rd, 2005, 6:35 am

I think you should re-read Leatherneck's DEP posting rules and then unfuck yourself first.

Get a translated Quran and start there. Know your enemy.

blinc · Post by **blinc** » August 23rd, 2005, 11:24 am

My apologies SFC Hit It. I did read his posting rules first, and thought it seemed like a decent question. Bad judgement on my part. Again, sorry.
Unfucking beginning.

hit_it · Post by **hit_it** » August 23rd, 2005, 11:49 am

The post is valid, just not for ths room.

It would have been better suited for the Rednecks Room because it's a general question and not particular enough to be here.

Leatherneck · Post by **Leatherneck** » August 23rd, 2005, 5:37 pm

As Hit_It said.

Moving this to the Redneck Forum.

As for your question, the best study material I know of is whatever textbook your teacher is working with you on. I wouldn't want to self-study Arabic. Get in a class, work with what your teacher gives you, and use the supplementary study material he/she recommends.

As far as language school goes, if you get here, the curriculum is not available publicly so there is no way to really prepare for it directly. There is no need to anyway, you will do the crawl, walk, run thing when you get here (well, crawl, crawl faster, crawl even faster, anyway, LOL).

If you're looking for recommended reference material for Modern Standard Arabic, I would recommend as a dictionary:

Al-Mawrid, by Munir Baalbaki and Dr. Rohi Baalbaki
It's a Lebanese dictionary without an ISBN, but you may be able to find one on Amazon. It's the best dictionary I've seen.

Modern Military Dictionary English-Arabic/Arabic-English (ISBN 0-7818-0243-1)

There a few subscriber based websites out there too (www.scola.org) where you can watch the news in Arabic.

But the bottom line is, if you're taking a class you're already going to be well ahead of the game assuming you ever get here. If you are thinking about trying to test out of Arabic, good luck. I don't think it's going to happen, nor worth the effort anyway. At your stage, PT and other preparation are more important. Good for you if you can take a class, but personally I wouldn't worry about it more than that.

أتمنى توفيق بك

blinc · Post by **blinc** » August 23rd, 2005, 11:35 pm

Thanks a ton for the insight Leatherneck. I'll be sure to focus on what I have at hand then. I appreciate it.

blinc · Post by **blinc** » December 10th, 2005, 12:48 pm

Well, I just took my test. It wasn't as hard as I thought it'd be. The testers came over from the DLI in Monterey. Really great people. Beginning Arabic is now complete. :)

إنْشوفكُم بعدين.

Table of Elements Skater · December 10th, 2005, 1:20 pm

Congrats.

Anouar · Post by **Anouar** » December 10th, 2005, 1:44 pm

blinc wrote:إنْشوفكُم بعدين.

That's not MSA, that's Egyptian dialect. Learn MSA first or you'll be confused later.

For anyone willing to get an idea about Arabic, these 2 books would be appropriate(although self-study is rather hard with such a language):

*Alif Baa: an introductory book for learning Arabic script. The DVD has the sounds and pronunciation.

*Al Kitab: starting guide to Arabic grammar and conjugation.

If you can get in a class or with someone for further study, then great. Otherwise, Arabic (like Russian and Chinese) is not meant for self-study.

Good luck.

Atrax · Post by **Atrax** » December 10th, 2005, 3:45 pm

I also recommend Alif Baa. We're using it in my 101 class right now, very easy to use and the DVD's are nice to have.

nadnklipsch · Post by **nadnklipsch** » December 28th, 2005, 10:21 pm

Anyone have any thoughts on Rosetta Stone? I'm thinking of buying the Arabic 1 cd-rom, and was wondering if anyone has any experience using this program.
http://www2.rosettastone.com/en

Thanks.

Anouar · Post by **Anouar** » December 28th, 2005, 10:38 pm

there's good feedback posted on Socnet about it.
The program is good, with varying acceptability for students. Some assimilate it quickly and others have difficulty.
I personally didn't like the Russian one. I got another program that was a bit better (if only I could find the time to study more often)